Page 98 of Pucking Your Best Friend

Maddie merely nodded. She was unable to speak because her tears were choking every word…and wasn’t it strange that some arguments didn’t feel like arguments at all, but more like reconciliations?

The Hawks were winning five to three. Her father was so enthusiastic aboutthat Matt Paynethat Maddie was tempted to say,He’s mine,Dad.

It felt too soon, though. Besides, she wanted to keep Matt to herself for a while longer, to stay with him in the happy cocoon they had barely left in the last week. So, she made up some excuse for why Lucy had to take her father home and not she herself just so she could intercept Matt at the players’ exit. Thank God her father naively believed that Sunday was always her cleaning day and a dirty bathroom awaited her.

She grinned at the thought. She would have to tell Matt that she’d equated him with a dirty tile floor. He would be proud of her because she’d used the excuse to get what she wanted. He always insisted on that.

God, she missed him. It was silly; he had held her in his arms just a few hours ago, but it seemed to her as if she hadn’t seen him in ages. The players were taking their time today, probably because they wanted to avoid the crowds of fans that sometimes waited for them in the underground parking garage. Today, there were a few men and women in jerseys and…She froze.

“Clemens?” she exclaimed.

It couldn’t be. She must be hallucinating. She rubbed her eyes, but no, there he was. He wasn’t wearing a jersey but a dark coat and a broad, winning smile. It was the smile she had fallen in love with back then, the smile she’d dreamed of and longed for –for years. It was the smile that now only gave her goosebumps, and not the good kind.

Her mouth went dry and she had the strange feeling of standing in front of her past. It was a past that no longer interested her, that was dusty and blurry at the edges. The present was so much more beautiful and the future so promising. Anyway, her neck ached from looking back so often.

In recent years, every time she saw Clemens, her heart had beaten wildly and she had blushed. But now? Her heartbeat was calm and the blood was still flowing in an orderly fashion through her body. There was only a slight twinge in her head. It was the memory of how awful she had felt, how stupid and naive she had been back then.

“Maddie! It’s so good to see you,” he greeted her exuberantly as he approached and pulled her into a tight hug.

Maddie was too surprised to fight back. She stood there stiffly, his arms at her sides while he patted her back as if she were his best friend.

“What…what are you doing here?” she asked, perplexed.

“Well, you said you didn’t have time because you were going to a hockey game, so I thought I’d see a game!”

“You…what?”

“Yeah. I wanted to make sure you were okay. You’ve never brushed me off before and I thought maybe something had happened?”

Perplexed, she stood there in his arms, thinking about his confusing words — then she heard someone clearing their throat. Or was it a growl?

Chapter 27

Matt would say he was a good person. He donated a lot of money to a number of charities, called animal control when he saw some asshole lock their dog in a car in the blazing sun, and he rarely got into fights—except for the annual exception on the ice.

He had his principles. He believed in honesty. He was against gun violence. And he firmly believed that you shouldn’t judge anyone based on first impressions.

However, the guy who had his hands on Maddie’s back and his chin on her shoulder, his nose almost touching the soft spot right above her pulse point, was a damn scumbag who was about to lose a couple of important limbs if he didn’t let go of her!

Matt wasn’t the jealous type – at least so he’d always believed. If it had been any other man, even Leon fucking Alvarez, it wouldn’t have bothered him that Maddie was hugging him.

But this weasel’s hand was close to Maddie’s ass, the other almost on her neck…Maddie wasn’t returning the hug. Her arms hung stiffly at her sides. The idiot should have noticed that!

Before he could lose his head and go breaking limbs, a hoarse sound slipped from his throat that made Maddie flinch and the guy loosen his grip.

“Matt,” she said breathlessly, smiling broadly, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

“I can see that,” he replied slowly without taking his eyes off the man, who had a pointy face, excellent for receiving a fist print. “And you are?” he asked coolly.

The man frowned and glanced between him and Maddie for a few moments, confused, as if trying to explain the connection. “Clemens Hardy. We’re old friends.”

Clemens.

Yeah, of course.

“Ah,” Matt replied slowly. “TheClemens. So, you’re friends?”

He almost expected Maddie to give him a nasty look for that, but she didn’t react at all. She stared at her ex with her mouth gaping as if she couldn’t believe he was here. Matt wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad thing. Her face was too expressionless to gauge.

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